November 30 – Day 74

The most random things remind me of home. Tonight I went to see a decent play with the spectacular advantage of being in English. It was delightfully amusing for the simple fact that it was the first time I have seen anything in months that I could understand completely. When I left there were a couple of guys scoffing about how it was just terrible. Okay, it wasn’t Chekhov or Shakespeare but it was fun and that is a quality that is highly undervalued these days. I walked with them towards home until we reached an unfamiliar fork in the road. They were determined to head towards the route we take every single day because it was probably faster or safer but I couldn’t bring myself to go. It all reminded me of my Dad, of how much I miss him, how he probably would have loved that silly play and how much he would hate to take the same old way home. I have spent much time looking for my path, for my higher purpose in life and art and for a second I remembered how fortunate I am to have been raised by people who taught me pause along the way and appreciate the simple things in life. I feel like I got a secret advantage in this world, a level of adaptability that I never would have had if I didn’t have my loving family to remind me not to take it all so seriously. There is time for levity, for uncomplicated joy, at least I think what my dad was trying to tell me in all those silly conversations we shared driving through the Missouri bottoms. So I bailed on the common way and set off on an adventure. It was cold and snowy and I probably would have gotten home a lot quicker if I had taken the safe route but it was so fun and worth it to see the sparkle of Pushkin Square under the glow of tacky twinkling Christmas lights.